VW readies SUV blitz to help revive U.S. fortunes

DETROIT -- Volkswagen will launch an SUV and crossover offensive over the next few years to strengthen its presence in those fast-growing segments as it tries to revive the brand's sagging U.S. sales.

A U.S.-made long-wheelbase variant of Tiguan SUV will launch in 2017, VW Group CEO Martin Winterkorn said Sunday at a press event on the eve of the auto show here.

The redesigned Tiguan will follow the debut of a new midsize crossover that VW plans to start producing at its U.S. factory in late 2016.

Winterkorn also hinted that a coupe-styled crossover may join VW’s U.S. lineup. VW is hinting at the vehicle with the Cross Coupe GTE plug-in hybrid concept that the automaker revealed photos of Sunday ahead of its debut at the show on Monday.

Winterkorn said the forthcoming SUVs as well as the U.S. arrival of new members of the Golf model line and a revived Passat show that the VW brand is returning to "attack mode" in the U.S., where its sales slid 10 percent to 366,970 units in 2014, their second straight year of decline.

VIDEO: VW CEO on future U.S. models, sales goals

Despite disappointing U.S. sales, the Volkswagen Group delivered a record 10.14 million vehicles globally in 2014, a 4.2 percent gain from 9.73 million in 2013, the company announced Sunday. It marked the first time that VW's global sales exceeded 10 million vehicles, according to the company. The total includes commercial vehicles.

VW's past failings mean it will miss an 800,000 U.S. sales target for its core VW brand for 2018, according to researchers IHS Automotive. They see 547,000 sales of VW-brand cars by then, from last year's 367,000, missing the goal by about a third. IHS forecasts include VW's plans to overhaul the Tiguan compact SUV in 2015 and add a coupe-style version as well as a long-wheelbase model that may offer a gasoline-electric hybrid version.

Big goal stands firm

The SUV blitz is part of the $7 billion in North American investments Volkswagen plans to make by 2019 to fund new vehicles, production and technologies, Winterkorn said.

In July, VW announced plans to open a 200-engineer North American vehicle design and development center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to develop vehicles suited for North America.

And VW executives are banking on the overhauled crossover lineup to fuel a turnaround starting in 2016, and followed by a redesigned Passat midsize car expected to arrive in 2018 as a 2019 model.

For now, crossovers remain a big vulnerability in Volkswagen’s U.S. lineup, which is dominated by cars. Its two current crossovers -- the Tiguan and the Touareg -- have been hampered in the marketplace by their steep sticker prices and intensifying competition.

Meanwhile, its two best sellers -- the Jetta compact and Passat midsize sedan -- also saw sales slip last year, putting Volkswagen well behind the pace for its onetime target of selling 800,000 vehicles in the U.S.

Despite the setbacks, Winterkorn reaffirmed the VW Group’s U.S. sales target of 1 million units by 2018, with the fast-growing Audi and Porsche brands likely picking up much of the VW brand’s slack.

Design 'ambassador'

In addition to hinting at a new model, VW’s Cross Coupe GTE concept foreshadows the next phase in VW’s design language.

“The Cross Coupe GTE is the ambassador of a new design language developed by Volkswagen for the U.S.,” Klaus Bischoff, VW’s chief designer, said in a statement released ahead of the Detroit auto show. “Numerous details hint at how we envision a future production SUV model for North America.”

Bischoff said the concept combines high efficiency and “powerful design” with the space, performance and comfort that American drivers seek. It follows two earlier concepts heralding the midsize crossover bound for Chattanooga and “increases the momentum toward series production,” VW says.

10.1-inch touchscreen

The interior features a 10.1-inch touchscreen mounted in the dash that houses a new VW infotainment system that can be controlled using gesture recognition technology, a feature that Volkswagen showcased earlier in the month at the international consumer electronics show.

Under the hood of the Cross Coupe GTE is a plug-in hybrid powertrain that combines a 276-hp, 3.6-liter V-6 engine with front- and rear-wheel electric motors that generate a combined maximum of 355 hp while returning a VW-estimated 70 mpg-equivalent fuel economy rating (3.4 liters per 100km), the company said.

Photo

Like the earlier CrossBlue and CrossBlue Coupe concepts shown in 2013, the Cross Coupe GTE rides on VW’s modular transverse matrix, or “MQB,” platform toolkit that will underpin much of VW’s U.S. lineup, starting with the redesigned Golf that went on sale last year.

The concept’s grille marks an evolution from the faces of VW’s current crossovers, with two horizontal bars undergirding the VW badge and flowing into the dual-LED headlight housing that sits atop wing-like bands of LED daytime running lights -- a detail that will appear on future production models, VW says.

Sheet metal is highlighted by a high shoulder line, swept-back A-pillar, low-slung roof and a closed-angle C-pillar to give the crossover a fastback-style roofline.

VW says the concept’s powertrain drives in hybrid mode by default, using the electric motors to power the front and rear wheels with help from the V-6 depending on the situation. Switching to “E-Mode” turns it into an EV with 20 miles (about 33km) of range in electric-only driving.

A “GTE” button applies sportier settings to the steering, transmission and throttle response for more dynamic driving and sets the gasoline and electric motors for maximum output, VW says.